Intensive Therapy

Klint physiotherapists believe in our clients getting the most out of treatment and delivering outcomes. Sometimes, this means that it is ideal to provide a block of intensive treatment so that the learning process is accelerated and heightened

What does intensive therapy mean?

Instead of seeing someone once a week for 8 weeks for therapy, it may be more productive if those 8 sessions fit into the 1 or 2 weeks instead for a much greater functional outcome for the same cost and time outlay. We have the capacity to see someone from 1 to 1.5 hours per session, up to twice a day. This type of treatment is considered intensive, with each treatment session building upon the last one.

This is particularly relevant for people with neurological conditions, where more input is generally needed to assist the person to learn, adapt and improve their skills.

We have known for a while about the principles of neuroplasticity, the process by which the nervous system reorganizes and changes in response to a challenge or stimulus. Therefore, the degree of recovery reflects the therapeutic efforts. If nothing is done, no learning or adaptation occurs and there is no change. Neuroplasticity and learning can be heightened through therapy that is:

Intensive
Specific
Motivated
Variable
Context-based
Reinforced

Will it take a long time to change?

One of the misconceptions that people have with neuroplasticity and change is that it a very slow process. This is in fact untrue. Most of our clients start showing observable change within a couple of sessions given the right conditions.

That is testament to the skill of our therapists seeing, feeling and reading your body so we can provide the right therapeutic intervention at the right time to demand a change. This level of skill takes years to master.

Focusing on movement quality

We have seen too many therapists who usually depend on a lot of exercise equipment to perform repetitive limb movements or just focus on task practise. In our experience we find that this is only part of the solution. More importantly is the ability to create smoother, straighter and better timed movement – known as optimising movement quality – before lots of practise can begin. Intensity and variability in therapy is key to achieving this.